Session Notes: Enter Vorgyr
Preface The party made it to Cliffkeep where they helped with the burrials of the hunters guild of the town. The locals offered to aid the party in any way they could for their generosity. As the party was still looking for Agnathor and after a vision from Zehith saying that their friend and towards a swamp area, the party decided to head west to the swamps. In order to do that they needed a vessel and the beast master of the area offered to give them three giant frogs free of charge if they help him get rid of an oddity that lived underneath his shop and killed all his animals. As the party investigated the caverns underneath the shop, they found 2 fiends feeding off the beast master's animals. In the deeper end of the caverns, a hole between the rock formation, was used as a dimention door for the fiends to come in and out of this world. Along them came a Raksasha aiding the attack against the party, the fiend injured Mugen, passing a curse to him. Once the enemies were destroyed, the hole on the rocks started closing but not before Jafar jumped into it. Jafar was never to be seen again as the party has no idea where he could be. Coming out of the cave, the party was given the three giant frogs and was ready to depart but Thorfin decided that it would be for the best if he would stay in Cliffkeep for a while and help train new hunters of the guild. The party allowed that and departed the next morning. Rabbit holes and oranges On the road through the muds and swamps of the area, the party came across various ruins of old cities that were built in the area thousand years ago. Within the mash and grasslands the party noticed manholes on the ground. Rarely at first and gradually more often, Mugen alerted the party. Soon they came to a plateau as tremours started disturbing the nature. When Sile attempted to investigate a near by tree, she came in contact with a Ghost that was haunting the grasslands. Soon another one popped out between the trees and finally a Naga crawled off one of the wholes. Once the party killed their enemies they continued across the mud. During the night, Sabnock had another vision of Zehith showing him the face of the person. "Remember his face. When the time comes, you will become him." she continued "Your friend is at a dungeon in a city with a big dragon. Be careful though cause the city has new...annoying leadership" They made it to the first city off the swamps, the East Nook where they heard the news about the city of Vorgyr, a big city roughly a days way that is the ruling city of the area. The new, strict government has imposed rough taxes and a curfew after sundown but no one seems to be willing to go against them. The new rulers, the Brunells are known for being the intimidating family from Harlech with the bronze dragon. The party stayed over the night in the East Nook before finally heading towards Vorgyr. Once outisde Vorgyr they noticed how parts of it were pristine and rich while others looked burnt and destroyed as the people of Vorgyr attempted to rebuilt the city. On the top of a small hill there was Castle Vorgyr, former house of the Brythe family, now new residence of the Brunells. On top of the main tower, a bronze dragon rested. Approaching the gates, Sabnock changed his form to the image that Zehith suggested and with Narcissos, they went to the gates. The guards allowed them in as they thought Narcissos was the healer Ripley that was sent for the Brunell family. Going inside the city could see the destroyed houses up close and the locals being quiet as they tried to fix their properties. They went straight to the castle gates passing the withered Star Tree, symbol of the city of Vorgyr. Once in they were greeted by the high priest of the castle that offered to take Mr Ripley and Sabnock upstairs to the Lords of the house while Mugen and Sile were to stay behind. When the fake Mr Ripley and his bodyguards went upstairs they were in the chambers of Lord and Lady Brunell. Dorothea explained that since the coup, Simon has been unable to move his limbs and they assume it is a curse. Narcissos assessed he bedridden Lord realising that the source of the curse is in his brain and asked Dorothea to give him 24 hours in order to research further. The lady agreed and let Mr. Ripley and his bodyguard go. In the meantime, Mugen and Sile were looking for a way to go underneath the castle where the dungeon must be. They first went in the kitchens where they were obviously seen by the dragonclaw guards. In their brief stay there, Mugen stole a cook's robe as well as a sack of oranges to use as cover if needed. Sile noticed a downstairs entrance by the main keep and they both went towards there. The guard let them easily pass when he saw that they were carrying the oranges and miraculously the two went downstairs towards the dungeons. When they opened the locked door they came across something that looked oddly like a combination of interrogation room, a surgery auditorium and a temple to Tiamat. The scenery around them gruesome and vile and as they went towards the altar it was obvious that this was a place where experiments happened. Inside the various cells they would find random people mostly dead in different stages of decomposition. On his way upstairs, Mugen found a closet with the prisoners belongings, among them Agnathor's armour and weapon. He went upstars to find a frightened Agnathor that in the beginning did not believe that he was being rescued. Soon the two friends, along with Agnathor's general Tommund, went back downstairs where Sile had found a button inside the altar of tiamat. When both Mugen and Sile pressed the button in each of the two bowls the ground underneath them shook and a doorway opened going further downstairs. Back upstairs, Sabnock and Narcissos were trying to find the rest of their party. Narcissos using his familiar he found the guard that was standing next to the stairs and killed him cold-blood. The two went downstairs to find their friends and followed them deeper inside the ground. After a few minutes of walking they came across a deep cave and on the other side of the bridge stood a Ziggurat. Sabnock went upstairs to check it out finding a walk path around him that lead upstairs. By the time they figured that out, they could hear people coming from upstairs, probably guards that found the body of the eyeless guard by the stairs. Agnathor and Tommund were instructed to leave through the walk path as Sabnock, Narcissos, Mugen and Sile became invisible in order to escape pass the guards and go upstairs back inside the castle. New friends and enemies As the party left the castle, they walked around the city until they found Zan's apothecary, an arcane shop run by a local human Enchanter. She explained the events of the take over, how the Brunells basically killed off any royal and their followers of the city, leaving a half-burnt mess of a town as they set themselves to be the new leaders. She decided to help the party once she found out what they were attempting to do. She gave them some items that could be useful to their quest in exchange for gold and information on the family. The items were: A protection breastplate, a fire dagger and a magic wand along with a scroll of greater restoration to be used on Simon. The same afternoon, the Brunells had organised a public speech outside the castle grounds to update the town on the new order of matters. They appeared on top of their bronze dragon both Dorothea and Simon with the latter being an obvious illusion of the ill Brunell sibling. They said that this is their new home and they want to make this into a prosperous and wealthy metropolis bigger and better even from their neighboring Sygorn. Once they addressed the ground, they took off back to their castle. The party regrouped in the tavern wondering how Simon looked normal while he was clearly incapacitated earlier this morning. Mugen decided to go alone and try to find where their friend Agnathor was hidden. Old flings die hard The next morning they prepared their new items and went to the castle to find the siblings in the exact situation as the last day. As Narkisos was treating Simon, he noticed wounds all over his body that seemed to have been caused by lighting. When Dorothea was asked, she admitted that her brother was attempting a fatal ritual in order to become a Dragoncrawler, which is the highest level of Wyrmspeakers and grants the ability to transform into a dragon. Simon has been catatonic ever since the ritual. Dorothea also admitted that in her family, dragons have been more important than humans. She remembered her ancestor Brunn the Islander, father of her bloodline and sibling to the original Royal family. She explained how her branch of the tree was never recognised as a fully fledged part of the family and how they have been mistreated through the centuries. A bronze dragon has always been there for the Brunells, especially in times of need. Them being the most recent generation and the only ones who have actually managed to get a grip of a major city of the Empire, they claim themselves to finally be where they belong as it is their birthright to be in power. Narkissos activated the scroll and soon Simon started showing signs of improvement but it seemed like a slow recovery. The sister thanked him and provided him with the assigned gold. Meanwhile, Sabnock, who was disguised as the bodyguard of Mr Ripley investigated the room to find books about various schools of magic, mainly Illusion and Transmutation as well as a horn made of ivory and black/blue gems. Upon leaving the castle, the three discussed of the siblings on their way to Zan's only to notice that a hooded figure was following them. After a brief game of hide and seek they went inside an alley. As they figure approached Sabnock realised that this was actually their old friend Jezzebeth, the tiefling pirate they met a while ago. Jezzebeth told them that she was following them for a while and that they had been summoned to join the Clasp to a council with all the big groups protecting the Empire. The council is supposed to take place in Y'mon the following day and she was going to take them through a teleportation circle. They all went to Zan's who was told of the new information the party found out but what shook her the most was the talks of the Horn. She explained that this is a Horn that can summon dragons and if these people are followers of Tiamat it makes sense that they would have it as "if all 5 chromatic horns sing together, Tiamat will rise again" as the legend suggests. She seemed distressed about this and the party decided that it would be a good idea to steal the Horn. After going back and forth with different plans, they decided to steal it and skip town right away. The plan is for Sabnock to disguise himself as Narkissos while the latter will ride on his pocket as an insect. The wizard will cast major image to the horn and take the original while leaving a fake on it's place. Then the party will meet up at Zan's where a teleportation circle will be ready for their departure.